


Maybe

by orange_fox



Category: The Mighty Boosh (TV)
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-06
Updated: 2016-02-06
Packaged: 2018-05-18 14:29:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5931754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orange_fox/pseuds/orange_fox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Its been months since Howard ran off with Jurgen to become an actor, and Vince is at a loss for what to do. <br/>For the Brushes and Bagels prompt this month which was 'Happy Endings'!! :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Maybe

Purples and blues hanging from eyes and red spreading through cheeks in blotches. The wind sending chills down his spine and spreading into each limb all at once as he huddled himself further into the warmest coat he had found in the flat. One of Howard’s, none of his own would have done anything to keep him from the weather. That, and this coat smelled more like home than any he owned himself. A small figure enveloped in sensible brown winding its way through the grey and navy all stitched together in the night. Silver heels clattering against cold pavement as he walked without any sense of destination or direction. Because what was the point? Howard was gone and quite frankly an ape and a shaman didn’t quite match up to his best mate. And maybe it was his fault, maybe if he had bothered to think about someone other than himself for a change then Howard wouldn’t have ever left his side and none of this would have happened. He wouldn’t be alone and he wouldn’t be so damn cold. 

Streetlights illuminated his face as he walked, but only until he was out from under their glare. Shadowed blues flickering across him as he moved and dark lilacs dripping into the hollows of his face. The night and the cold were melting into his head and making the ache that was already there even worse than before, a distinct stabbing from the inside of his mind that could have been from lack of sleep but was more likely to do with too many thoughts. Too many thoughts that wouldn’t stop kicking at his skull and had just kept on multiplying for the past seven months since Howard had left. All that time and nothing. Not a text, not a call, not a letter. He hadn’t even seen his friend on the telly despite the fact that he said he was leaving to become an actor. Maybe he had meant on stage? That would have been more Howard’s cup of tea. Of course, maybe he would know if he had paid any attention in the first place. He was useless. He was useless back then and he was even more useless now. 

His breath rose in clouds and his feet felt like they were sinking through the ground as he walked, getting more and more difficult to lift with each step and his whole body becoming heavier and heavier until he couldn’t walk and his spine collided with brick, his back against a wall. As his eyes lazily scanned his surroundings he realised that he had no idea where he was, and that he didn’t actually care anyway. His hands cupped his face, and as tears began to puddle in his palms, his body sank to the floor and he sat, hunched over and crying, with his knees to his chest in an unfamiliar street. 

He thought Howard would be back by now. He thought that whatever he was doing wouldn’t have worked out and that he would have come home a bit embarrassed and down from lack of success a week or so after he left. That he’d come home and everything would be fine again and the flat wouldn’t feel so empty anymore. He’d come home and bring the warmth with him because everything had been cold since Howard had left.  
It was cold, it was so cold and it was all his fault. Maybe if he had been a better friend, maybe if he had listened to what Howard said, maybe if he had even acknowledged him, treated him like he existed, made him feel real, maybe Howard wouldn’t have left all the cold here without his presence to banish it away. Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe was all that ever played through his head. Maybe it wasn’t real. Maybe if he tore his hands from his eyes and looked up he’d realise he was back in the old, warm hut in the zoo. Surrounded by the sunny feeling he got when he heard the distant sound of the animals chatting away in their enclosures and Bob Fossil shouting through the speaker system and leaves on the ground that no one would bother to sweep away and greens and oranges and browns swirling in front of his eyes and everything was so beautiful. Everything used to be so beautiful. But he didn’t bother looking up.  
Because now it was just bitter. Bitter and biting and it had already been like this before Howard had left. And now, now he was freezing in a coat that wasn’t his, his tears falling through the gaps between his fingers and soaking into the knees of his jeans. 

Footsteps. As they went past he wondered where they were going so late at night. Maybe they were lost too, or maybe they were on their way home. He hoped they weren’t too cold. The footsteps sounded gentle until they stopped. Stopped without giving themselves enough time to fade round the corner and down a different street. They got louder again, louder and louder until they were silent right in front of him. 

“Excuse me, uhm…” 

He closed his eyes tighter, as tight as he could and didn’t dare look up because now he knew he was dreaming. He willed himself to wake up, he had to wake up because the voice that those footsteps had stolen wasn’t here anymore. That voice was so far away and sounded so much like home and sounded so much like comfort that he didn’t want it anywhere near him because he didn’t deserve it and it wasn’t real it wasn’t here it was gone and it-

“Are you- uhh… Are you ok?”

Maybe… maybe it was real. Maybe it was real and maybe he was home and maybe everything would be a little warmer now and maybe-  
He ripped his hands away from his dripping eyes and looked up into his best friend’s face, watching as it contorted into surprise. 

“Vince?”

Vince sprung to his feet and crashed into Howard’s body, wrapping his arms as tight as he could around his middle and pressing his face into his chest. Howard dropped both his suitcases and wrapped his own arms round the smaller man, one cradling the back of his head and gently stroking his hair as Vince sobbed into his shirt. 

“Why are you wearing my coat?” asked Howard, a soft laugh woven through his words. 

A blush seeped into Vince’s face, and a smile laced its way through his teeth as he attempted to hold his best mate even closer than he already was.  
And as they stood holding each other in the dark, in the middle of an unfamiliar, freezing street, they were as warm as could be, and Vince thought that maybe- Maybe everything was going to be alright.


End file.
